Does size count even just a little bit?

The key word here is might, he might also carry the speed as well as the muscle.

 

The short arms aren't a hindrance though, he isn't going to to be having a chess match with the jab is he.

He'd be crouching down, leaping in with the hook and capitalising on his leverage up close.

It's a style he perfected go hide his limitations.

Whether he'd have the strength to give away 20 pounds and do the job is a question we'll never be able to answer.

 

Tua was able to carry the weight effectively as was Norris and Toney. I've no doubt Marciano could do.

I just wouldn't recommend a career like Byrd's were you are the smaller man every fight.

 

And steroids..

 

Short arms are always a hindrance.
Crouching down and leaping in with the hook takes a lot of effort and energy, that's the point.

Well, if you are calling them "limitations" then they are limitations, or a hindrance.
And since we're talking about them at all they aren't exactly hidden.

 

Steroids won't help much if you don't have the bone structure.

 

Even if Marciano bulked up he would still almost certainly be the smaller man by a big margin, that's why I don't think he would campaign at HW.

 

Haha I like what you did there.

 

I wouldn't recommend any fighter to be consistently the smaller man.

 

Not in short range, when long arms give you excess mass you don't need, and your arm needs to travel an awkward path. Having Rockys physique with his strong frame and huge forearms with the shoulder snap and the leverage would be incredible. You could deliver your power punches so much faster as there is less motion for your arm to extend.

 

The problem is, boxing matches start with the fighters far away from each other.
If there's a long armed fighter against a short armed fighter, the long armed fighter starts with the advantage and if he's good he defends that advantage.
The short armed fighter has to overturn his own disadvantage before he even gets to test the theory of his supremacy at close range.

 

How do you guys think that the Mundine - Green fight effects this debate?

Mundine was coming up from below middleweight to fight a much bigger Danny Green, and he didnt actually even make the limit so a pretty decent weight discrepancy remained.

Despite the weight difference, Mundine dropped Green with the first clean shot of the night (admittedly from arguably a bit of a cheap shot). Mundine went on two worry Green every time he landed cleanly and green struggled with his power, even though Mundine has good but nothing overly special in the way of power.

ON the flip side, the weak chin of mundine that was exposed originally by the light hitting Sven Ottke, among many others, had no real trouble with handling the power of Danny Green, who is certainly a decent hitting light heavy or even cruiserweight, if nothing else.

I think that this fight shows that speed is far more important than power at the heavier weights particularly. Many guys can land the Ko punch on any chin they need the speed to land cleanly though. A lighter guy isnt necessarilly faster than a heavier guy. You dont see many 5 foot 100m gold medalists. Obviously, to an extent bulking up helps this. If someone like Muhammed Ali is faster than Ray Robinson then obviously he is likely to destroy him and this is not impossible to consider. That being said, if the littlest guys are not always the fastest, they are also not always the lighter hitters either. it isnt impossible for langford, Fitzsimmons, even Hearns or Golovkin to hit as hard or harder than someof todays big guys. Without doubt a clean shot from these guys is twice as good as an arm punch or a punch which doesnt land flush from the much bigger guys.

 

What speed?

 

This is usually the case but there at exceptions eg Riddick Bowe was never at a disadvantage inside,some can fight close up ,some aren't so good, eg Tyson who should have been the blueprint for an extremely effective close range fighter, but really wasn't.

 

Tua's chest measurement was 50 inches,Rocky's 39" they had very little in common physique wise except height.